


Pontifex

by Emriel



Series: Taken [24]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Chaos, Dark Harry, Death, Disenchanted, Dreams, Fluff, Freeform, M/M, Peace, Political, Politics, Satire, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 07:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21454606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emriel/pseuds/Emriel
Summary: Harry finds his greatest ally in his greatest enemy and yet in the world he lives in for which he died for many times, there are still those who wish to ruin his peace. And so he watches them and Tom bids his time wondering when his precious lover will snap.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Death, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort
Series: Taken [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/965817
Comments: 14
Kudos: 121





	Pontifex

**Author's Note:**

> This has a different tone in comparison to the rest of my works -.- I wanted to go in depth about torture and gore but there’s enough of that floating around so this came to be.
> 
> The lot of you might disagree with me in many aspects and that’s fine. I just wanted to show that despite Harry being very against Tom in the beginning, some things had to give and still, they have time for each other <3.

How did it come to be?

It was a question that Harry asked himself. In reaching for a semblance of truth, he found out that his existence was truly insignificant.

He trailed a hand around his hair, softly flowing behind him. Cold green eyes surveyed the landscape. Warriors, soldiers, heroes. Whatever it was that they called themselves, all rushing for a glory that none can truly find.

What was the glory in war?

The hundreds, thousands, millions of piles of corpses that sat on the ground while he sat idly, trying to brush off a stray strand from his eye.

A poisonous touch here, and there.

“What say you, my prince?”

“Stop that, Tom,” Harry said to his companion who was busy fixing his crown on the other side of the pavilion.

“What do you think is the point of culling the masses?”

Tom blinked his red eyes, eyed the carnage that not even his followers can do by themselves.

“It’s a lesson, that you truly cannot trust the wicked with a responsibility. They let power corrupt their minds and souls, and what is left is a wasted effort, of those who are too weak to fight for themselves and their country.”

Harry stood up from his chair, and surveyed the winning group. “And I bet they will write about how they triumphed from evil, when in fact there was no true point to this fighting.”

“I say we kill everyone?”

Tom smirked, and raised his wand which turned into a sword that began to hover over the heavens.

“Kill them, with a swift affliction like that? I want to see them struggle, for them to see reason. This is a chance. To see who truly wants to live or die.” Harry then smiled.

It was a slow descent it seemed. “We are safe here, because we can afford it, because we have power and we know better. And yet looking at it from afar, it’s like a story, something that you would see in a muggle film, and yet here we are.”

Harry began floating upwards.

“Where are you going, my love?”

Harry blinked and stretched out a hand in invitation.

“Let’s come closer. Let’s see what they have to say?”

The immaterial dome shattered, and Tom grinned, as if in askance, “Will you let me join in?”

“As part of the agreement, we are only here to witness their travesty… but we might as well enjoy it while we are alive,” Harry smirked sardonically.

“Then we shall,” Tom smirked.

* * *

The descent to the muggle realm was foggy. The first thing they both noticed was that the battlefield was filled with an acrid stench, with smoke, with dust. With screams. And terrified sailings of children with the bodies of adults. It was immediately something that was terrible enough to breathe, and Harry cursed, “Muggles.”

Tom just laughed at him.

The next thing they noticed was that it was raining black rain. The floor was muddy with a mixture of blood. If it was not already littered by a pile of rubble and corpses.

Harry touched down on someone’s half torn torso. “How sad.”

“It’s funny that you’re still sad, when you know that this is their collective fault,” Tom kicked someone’s head around.

And sadly enough, someone saw it happen and started screaming for “Mother!”

“Ah. He pissed himself.” Harry blinked and wrinkled his nose at the smell. It was a good thing that he could ignore the mix of scents. The scent of necrosis, the scent of souls that have died for no clear reason, except the lie that they must protect their country when warfare was just a business of acquiring resources and a monopoly of land.

“That’s what happens when you turn invisible and they think you’re a ghost.”

Harry frowned, “I pity them you know, they must remain strong for their own lands, their practice of faith and that is because other lands would grow strong and cease their territory because muggles still cannot cooperate.”

“Which is why, I believe, we must just end their ceaseless struggle. What kind of future is left to these countries who cannot even take care of their own, and yet still strive to conquer another? They preach equality and still they have not achieved it...” Tom looked up at his hovering sword, towering up high in the heavens, waiting for the opportune moment to strike, and cull the lives of millions.

“Or, we can just make them realize that they should go back to their families? What is it that’s important to them? Are there others who truly enjoy the idea of being out there in the battlefield?” Harry blinked and danced around the empty field as the sound of booming tanks were heard, reducing the remaining buildings to chunks of metal and cement. A structure filled with holes.

“What do you think will they feel, if they realize halfway across the world, there are burning forests, and oceans waiting to rise up and swallow them whole?” Harry raised his hand, dancing around, and then the rain came down as a downpour, and the remaining warriors had to find shelter for which fool would fight in a drowning land?

And bodies floated around. Something that could have easily prevented. The sun shone, swifter than sound in the middle of it all. Lighting up the war torn city, while the voices tried to stifle their cries. Tried to stifle their tears. Tried to stay strong because their commanders could not even ask them to stop.

“Careful, Harry. If you keep doing that, they will think their prayers have been answered. What you’re doing is a temporary ceasefire. If these experiences do not teach them a lesson, then they will simply go back to how they were previously. Some are stubborn enough not to change and would rather live under a rock like livestock.”

Harry began to float in the air, and turned upside down, calling upon his friend, “Death. If there is so much death, why do we all continue to live.”

Tom suddenly had an annoyed look on his face, “Harry, your friends are annoying, do you not know that?”

Harry glared at Tom, “Just because I love you with all my heart, does not mean that I can’t share some love with real friends.”

And Death materialized beside Harry, “Well said, young master. Death is the consequence of life, and in life you see things unique to life. In Death there is a message, another realm. Now, please excuse me, for I still need to row a boat to the river styx.”

Harry just laughed like a kid, “Take care.”

And Death vanished but not without his words lingering in the air, “My dearest master, please do not forget to eat.”

And to Harry who lived for more than a couple centuries as part of human-kind, he laughed. “Thanks.”

And Harry then had a sudden question in his mind that Tom heard beside him, ‘Shall I eat souls, or solid food?’

“You are insufferable.”

“Well, what would you do if you were in my position, Tom? If you’ve seen things the way I see them. You know what it’s like to be inside my head and it’s tiring.” Harry pouted, and pulled out a lingering soul from one of the masses. It was a small soul that did not know where to go. It merely wanted to live, so it could provide for his family. For his loved ones and in the hopes that he could at least be of use to others, he lost his life.

“Shall I take this in? Or do I let this wander around… it’s certainly sobering to know that I was once a martyr just like him. And so I wish to protect this soul. Is this wrong? Is it wrong that I want to take him in?”

Tom’s slitted red eyes narrowed, and instead of Harry eating the thing, a pointed black thing needled through and stabbed it, and slowly, the blue turned into a color of red.

“Eating souls like this, knowing that it’s too pure. Knowing that you’re full enough and you can’t save everything. You’re the most foolish person I’ve known, my love. I’ll gladly take it in for you, but remember your promise.”

And so, Tom absorbed it, and a languid smile spread upon his face. One of sickly sweet satisfaction.

“What are we, even?” Harry asked, as he watched with rapt attention Tom devour his meal.

“Many things, but you are Harry, and I am Tom. As long as you remember that, my love.”

And Tom pulled the floating teenager to him. A form that Harry chose to keep for eternity. “Do you still damn them for hurting you, as a child?” Harry asked as he found himself wrapped around the arms of his beloved.

“Yes. With every bit of my being. But…”

And then they heard missiles falling from the sky, painting the sky in red white and yellow.

“Let’s get out of here. Their commanders should know since they’re afforded so much, then they should realize if they do not have the littlest bit of patience, they will ruin the one place they call home.”

Harry nodded and listened to Tom rant.

“What they should do is bring their commanders to the battlefield and see if those fools can survive the hell they’ve brought on earth.”

* * *

Home to Harry and Tom was simply a place where they could be themselves. After traversing many worlds, there came a point where one got tired.

“Who would have thought you would become a dark lord as well?” Tom laid the boy in a tub, and combed a hand through the boy’s hair who conjured a duck that floated around.

About them, there was a lotus, floating peacefully. In the zen.

The sound of wood, hitting the water, and the mild twittering of birds.

“The light could not afford me anything but a lot of pain. It is truly difficult to be kind all the time, and right now I’m tired… Any other day, I would be kind to everyone, Tom… but now.”

“You see what I’ve seen.” Tom finished for him and sharp claws shrank.

“We were once enemies,” Harry remarked.

“But you never considered me that.”

“Well, that’s a lie you know.”

Harry pulled Tom closer to him, who gave him a languid kiss to the neck. “You smell good,” Tom said with restraint.

“I’ve ah-always. Thought of you… as a monster, but truly, you aren’t.”

* * *

Harry lay on the bed quite flushed, and atop his bed, a mirror hung and on it was his equally flushed reflection.

Tom was busy buttoning up his white shirt.

“Where are you headed?”

Tom fixed his tie. “Somewhere you’d rather not be in, Harry.”

“Ahhh. Reasoning with muggles?”

Tom’s aura descended on Harry until the boy could not move and he let out a moan.

“You minx. You wish to rest, and you wish for peace and yet you choose not to do anything so one of us has to do their part.”

And Harry thought of his many friends, who were out there doing their part. He hid his face with an arm and mumbled, “Politics?”

Harry sighed and a forlorn frown came upon him, “Sometimes I do not understand why they follow a law when the law itself caters to those who can twist it to their own use.”

“Yes love, men are but peddlers of dreams. So for now, why don’t you terrorize their dreams?”

Harry smirked, and envisioned a world where there was no sun, but there was only machinery, and death and devastation. Something worthwhile to dream about, where others would learn what it was like to be trapped in their own machinations.

If the world would be headed to ruin, then he might as well show them what it would be like once they got their wish.

“Gladly.”

And Harry closed his eyes and Tom vanished, a speck of white in the distance.


End file.
